Ecosystem services in decision making: time to deliver

Background

Over the past decade, valuing and protecting ecosystem services has been promoted as a strategy to mainstream conservation globally. While the vision of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is gaining traction, a significant scientific and policy-implementation gap remains. Natural capital is often undervalued or ignored in major decisions by governments, businesses, and the public, a problem highlighted by natural disasters and crises where the loss of protective services becomes starkly apparent.

Goals and Methods

This article proposes a conceptual framework and strategic plan to operationalize ecosystem services in decision-making. The authors highlight the work of the Natural Capital Project, a partnership between Stanford University, The Nature Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund. A key method is the development and application of InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs), a modular software tool that models and quantifies ecosystem services under different land-use and climate scenarios. The framework outlines an iterative process that begins with stakeholder engagement to define scenarios, uses models to quantify services, and presents outputs in biophysical, economic, or cultural terms to inform trade-offs.

Conclusions and Takeaways

This article concludes that for the ecosystem services approach to be credible and sustainable, it must advance rapidly in both science and policy, illustrating the need to understand ecological production functions, measure multidimensional values, and embed these values into institutions and incentives. The practical application of tools like InVEST is opening new conservation opportunities by making the benefits of nature visible to decision-makers, thereby aligning economic forces with conservation.